For Developers

Start with the Getting Started instructions to install.

Database management

Always specify the environment when running artisan commands against a specific database:

# Production
php artisan migrate:fresh --force

# Test database
php artisan migrate:fresh --force --env=testing
php artisan user:create test@example.com "Test" password123 --env=testing

The testing connection is defined in config/database.php and always points to the test database file regardless of .env.

Architecture notes

No deletion — Tasks and projects are never deleted, only archived. Use status = archived to hide things.

Status values — incomplete, done, archived. These are the only valid values; enforced at the migration level.

Authorization — Tasks and projects are private by default. Visibility is limited to the creator and explicitly assigned users. Look for the ->where('creator_id') / ->orWhereHas('assignments') pattern in TaskController and ProjectController.

Change logging — All creates and updates write a record to change_logs. The Activity view (/changelogs) surfaces this per-task, per-project, per-tag, or per-user.

File storage — Attachments use the private disk. Downloads are proxied through TaskAttachmentController::download() to enforce authorization.

Auth split — Session-based auth for web routes, hashed-token auth for API routes. The auth.api middleware (app/Http/Middleware/AuthenticateApiKey.php) validates bearer tokens against bcrypt hashes in api_keys and checks the user’s enabled status.

Adding pages to Other Links

I added the ability to add other links because I didn’t want to put words in your mouth with respect to a privacy policy or Terms of Service or such nonsense. Now it’s your problem to add.

Drop any Markdown file into storage/app/other-links/. It will:

• Appear as a link in the Other Links nav dropdown (desktop) and collapsible section (mobile)
• Be accessible at /other-links/{filename} (filename including extension)
• Use the filename (minus extension, with - and _ replaced by spaces) as the page title

The nav is populated by app/View/Composers/NavigationComposer.php, which shares $otherLinksFiles to all views using the navigation layout. Symlinks are supported.

Contributing to documentation

The docs live in docs/ and are built with Hugo.

If you don’t already have Hugo installed, you can do so on Ubuntu with:

apt-get install hugo

To preview changes locally:

cd docs
hugo serve -D

Then open http://localhost:1313.

If you document something that others running Task Fiend would find useful, please consider contributing it back.